Remodelling of drains: HC asks BBMP to submit another report

The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday asked the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to submit another report on the progress made on remodelling of drains in the city after the civic body submitted a status report stating that the works were in different stages.

The BBMP said the city has a chain of drains measuring 842 km in length, and re-modeling was being done in a phased manner since 2015. The report also stated that the BBMP had identified 299 km of drains in the city as “vulnerable” owing to the nature of their existence. It said 159 km of such drains were already remodeled, with 50 km have been covered.

The BBMP report was filed during the hearing on a PIL petition that was filed in 2014 after a nine-year-old girl was washed away after falling into an uncovered drain during heavy rain The petition had complained about the lack of proper maintenance of civic infrastructure by the BBMP.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Subhro Kamal Mukherjee and Justice P.S. Dinesh Kumar, which took the report on record, adjourned further hearing on the case and asked the BBMP counsel to inform the court whether the civic authority had taken action against the erring persons.

The petitioner, Namma Bengaluru Foundation, had also sought direction to the government for prosecuting BBMP officials in cases of death because of lack of maintenance of civic infrastructure, by holding the officials concerned personally responsible.